Late last night, whilst listening to the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4, I finished the computer manipulation of the hand drawn design; tidying up the lines and flipping the half moon to make a full sphere. Today I’ll be printing out the motif on my A3 printer and popping along to the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Library to photocopy the motif onto acetate. There’s lots of ways to transform artwork onto transparencies for exposing onto the silk screen, some people paint straight onto big sheets of ethulon paper (a glossy sort of hazy tracing paper) with a thick opaque ink called Speedball, others print the motif onto tracing paper in black and white but I think you get the crispest print by using acetates, it costs a bit more, but the result is a more defined image on the screen from which you get a beautifully detailed print. Nice. ...read more.

Comments (1)     Post a comment

Posted in - Studio

The dark, cold mornings are back with a vengeance - winter is here once more, boo. I thought I would give you sneak peek of my desk today. I've been working on a black and white design for a big Scottish organization (will let you in on their secret identity as soon as the commission is finalized - counting your eggs and all...) The brief was to create a limited edition print for them which could be presented as a gift to VIP's. I wanted to create one of my signature spherical black and white designs with a Scottish accent, so I intertwined the foliage with the odd thistle head and jagged little prickle. The hand drawn stage is now complete, so the next step is to scan it into my trusty Mac, tidy up the artwork and flip it in Photoshop to create a perfect circle. After that, I'll print the black and white sphere out onto acetate and expose it onto a silk screen, before getting mucky and hand printing the first few samples. The whole process should be complete by Monday, just in time to pop the samples in the post to my Mystery Client. Check back over the next couple of days to see updates on the process and see the first prints, hot off the print table!...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Studio

Big News! From 1st January 2009, I'll be taking a 6 week holiday from printing in order to move and set-up a new studio, (my days in the little Studio at Unit 8 will soon be over) so you'll need to get those orders in before the festivities start, or you'll be staring at bare walls until February! Last Wallpaper Orders are being taken on Friday 28th November. So, if you've always fancied a bit of Crazy Botanic in the Bedroom or a little Bella in the Bathroom, you'll need to get a shifty on and drop me a line at the studio to place your order. ...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Studio

A little project I’m working on in the Studio at the moment for Craft Scotland. Still early days, but this is a sample piece for a hand printed gift box for one of my ceramic mugs. Each box is individually silk screen printed in gloss black ink onto manila-brown corrugated card, before being assembled by hand and finished with a skinny black ribbon bow to keep the contents safe. I quite like the crispness of glossy print against the scuffed up cardboard. The intricate motif versus the exposed edges of the card give it a contemporary grittiness. ...read more.

Comments (1)     Post a comment

Posted in - Studio

With only 13 weeks to go until 100% Design, I have been super busy in the studio getting the new wallpapers ready for the press. Today was spent fixing glittering handfuls of Swarovski Crystals to my new Delirium Wallpaper - the little packets of beautifully cut gems are sent from Austria in carefully folded paper pockets, which open to reveal hundreds of tiny sparkles. Each crystal is fixed by hand to the paper using tweezers - a painstakingly slow process but the delicate swirls of sparkling light add a magical extra dimension....read more.

Comments (2)     Post a comment

Posted in - Studio